To tell you frankly, the place I stay in has no Sangha and there is a Goenka retreat which I have booked for attending next month for Vipassana meditation.

However in day to day life, here is what I practise in every moment of my life. Basically what I do is :-

1. When I see a Feeling coming in - from my eye, ears or tongue. I look at that feeling as that - feeling. I dont identify that feeling as my Self and look at that feeling as Impermanent. This is do for both pleasant and unpleasant feelings. And when I do that in my mind, in 100% of cases the feeling just goes away without leaving any trace in my mind. I dont remember that feeling again. And for a brief moment (about 2-3 minutes ) I feel an subtle Rapture and joy in my mind. I dont know from where it comes but it definitely comes.

2. Similarly when I see a Body - a beautiful or ugly human being. I look at that thing as that - Body. It does not constitute as Self. I think that it is subject to change - it will decay and become a carcass and be eaten by Birds . So that attraction and repulsion towards that body goes away.

3. Similarly in day to day life, whenever I get a Perception - I make sure not to identify myself with that Perception.

4. Similarly many times in a day I contemplate about the 5 aggregates and make sure that I dont identify with any of them as they are impermanent and constitute no permanent entity (self) within them.

Please tell me if this is what the Buddha taught as Right Mindfulness?.

I think a LOT of people restrict Mindfulness to just Anapanasati which is wrong.

Mindfulness I think (and I feel is what the Buddha taught) is simple awareness of your Mind. In everyday life situations - you see,hear, smell, taste ,feel with body different things both pleasant and unpleasant. The Undisciplined wordling who has not heard the Buddha's teaching does the following (He does not see these things as - Impermanent, Without a Self, Cause a suffering) and so he attaches to it which leads to either Greed or Aversion.

But the instructed Wordling who has heard the teaching watches it as it is (Impermanent, Without a Self, cause of suffering) and does not attach to it and watches it go away as it arises.

Yes, I certainly agree with you and this is how I try (TRY !) to cultivate mindfulness in my daily life too. right mindfulness should start from our ordinary day to day life as you have explained and if you really practise it, at the end of the day if you review what you have done, you have actually developped and progressed on Sathara Sathipattana (four awareness i.e. Kayanupassana - awareness in body, Vedananupassana -awareness in feeling, Chiththanupassana -awareness in mind and Dhammanupassana -awareness in dhamma.

This offering maybe right, or wrong, but it is one, the other, both, or neither!Blog,-Some Suttas Translated,Ajahn Chah."Others will misconstrue reality due to their personal perspectives, doggedly holding onto and not easily discarding them; We shall not misconstrue reality due to our own personal perspectives, nor doggedly holding onto them, but will discard them easily. This effacement shall be done."

Yes, I certainly agree with you and this is how I try (TRY !) to cultivate mindfulness in my daily life too. right mindfulness should start from our ordinary day to day life as you have explained and if you really practise it, at the end of the day if you review what you have done, you have actually developped and progressed on Sathara Sathipattana (four awareness i.e. Kayanupassana - awareness in body, Vedananupassana -awareness in feeling, Chiththanupassana -awareness in mind and Dhammanupassana -awareness in dhamma.

Chethinie

I am glad someone agrees with me. I was beginning to think if what I was doing does not belong to the Dhamma or useless.

indian_buddhist wrote:But the instructed Wordling who has heard the teaching watches it as it is (Impermanent, Without a Self, cause of suffering) and does not attach to it and watches it go away as it arises.

Can this be considered as Mindfulness?.

I believe you're spot on. To me, right mindfulness is the idea of being aware of the impermanence-to see each phenomena and experience as such (just experience). I think it means to be detached and just observe each experience as a rising and passing rather than fabricate a false identity within is. I have always believed this to be the first step in understanding the ways of Buddha's teachings.

So as I understand, Shall mindfulness be practiced during 24h per day? When I sit to meditate, May I start with concentrarion on the breathing and then jump to another part, for example, perception,feeling?

One meaning of mindfulness is to be aware.Be aware of what?.Be aware of Vedana of each and every body movements.

Now Right mindfulness means mindfulness align towards final goal(Nirwana).Wrong mindfulness is awareness of body movements for harming somebody or himself.

To practicing right mindfulness 100% in every day life on every body movement is difficult unless in a retreat.But to some instances possible.Right mindfulness is in Noble Eightfold Path is call Samma Sathi.

Right MindfulnessDear Indian BuddhistYour practice of R/M is worthful.I think when you have a pleasant feeling for example if you can aware that I have a pleasant feeling is sufficient to suppress that feeling. To illustrate this point suppose that a thief has come to your house in night to steal,if you saw the thief,what will he try to do? He will try to run away.So the pleasent feeling is try to do the same.

Instead of going to the extent of awareing that is not my feeling.Because if the strength of feeling is less at that point it will vanished.That mean you are aware that pleasant feeling arise ,and continue for some times and ceased after some time.If pleasent feeling persist you have to resort as you intended.If still persist then you have resort to change mind to something like virtue of Lord Buddha or Metta or suitable object.With this Ithnk you can developt R/M.

I am not sure there can be such a thing as a wrong mindfulness, so any mindfulness is the right mindfulness. The flavor of mindfulness is unmistakable, it is non-discriminating, doesn't ignore anything, doesn't favor anything, it's curious, it's light, mindful mind is acutely aware of everything around it, without attaching to anything.

As far as I can tell mindfulness can only be of one kind the right one.

lonewolf wrote:I am not sure there can be such a thing as a wrong mindfulness, so any mindfulness is the right mindfulness. The flavor of mindfulness is unmistakable, it is non-discriminating, doesn't ignore anything, doesn't favor anything, it's curious, it's light, mindful mind is acutely aware of everything around it, without attaching to anything.

As far as I can tell mindfulness can only be of one kind the right one.

SN 45.1: Avijjā Sutta wrote:The Blessed One said, "Monks, ignorance is the leader in the attainment of unskillful qualities, followed by lack of conscience & lack of concern. In an unknowledgeable person, immersed in ignorance, wrong view arises. In one of wrong view, wrong resolve arises. In one of wrong resolve, wrong speech... In one of wrong speech, wrong action... In one of wrong action, wrong livelihood... In one of wrong livelihood, wrong effort... In one of wrong effort, wrong mindfulness... In one of wrong mindfulness, wrong concentration arises.

MN 117: Mahācattārīsaka Sutta wrote:In one of right mindfulness, wrong mindfulness is abolished. The many evil, unskillful qualities that come into play with wrong mindfulness as their condition are also abolished, while the many skillful qualities that have right mindfulness as their condition go to the culmination of their development.

SN 45.1: Avijjā Sutta wrote:The Blessed One said, "Monks, ignorance is the leader in the attainment of unskillful qualities, followed by lack of conscience & lack of concern. In an unknowledgeable person, immersed in ignorance, wrong view arises. In one of wrong view, wrong resolve arises. In one of wrong resolve, wrong speech... In one of wrong speech, wrong action... In one of wrong action, wrong livelihood... In one of wrong livelihood, wrong effort... In one of wrong effort, wrong mindfulness... In one of wrong mindfulness, wrong concentration arises.

MN 117: Mahācattārīsaka Sutta wrote:In one of right mindfulness, wrong mindfulness is abolished. The many evil, unskillful qualities that come into play with wrong mindfulness as their condition are also abolished, while the many skillful qualities that have right mindfulness as their condition go to the culmination of their development.

Ok. Not sure where the disconnect is, so let's get a bit deeper. Wrong mindfulness, what it is exactly? The lack of mindfulness? If there is a wrong mindfulness, what are its characteristics? As far as I can tell when mind is mindful the greed, hate, & ignorance are absent, the moment mindfulness slips away they are back, so how can mindfulness be wrong? What am I missing here?

lonewolf wrote:Ok. Not sure where the disconnect is, so let's get a bit deeper. Wrong mindfulness, what it is exactly? The lack of mindfulness? If there is a wrong mindfulness, what are its characteristics? As far as I can tell when mind is mindful the greed, hate, & ignorance are absent, the moment mindfulness slips away they are back, so how can mindfulness be wrong? What am I missing here?

Mindfulness doesn't exist by itself. When one is mindful, what is it that one is "mindful of"? A very common example, seeing a beautiful voluptuous woman, if one is "mindful" solely of her curves, that's wrong mindfulness. If one is mindful of the origin, disappearance, gratification, danger, and escape from those curves (MN 11), now that's right mindfulness.

lonewolf wrote:Ok. Not sure where the disconnect is, so let's get a bit deeper. Wrong mindfulness, what it is exactly? The lack of mindfulness? If there is a wrong mindfulness, what are its characteristics? As far as I can tell when mind is mindful the greed, hate, & ignorance are absent, the moment mindfulness slips away they are back, so how can mindfulness be wrong? What am I missing here?

The disconnect is a matter of definition. It's possible to define "wrong mindfulness" as "lack of mindfulness". This appears to be the stance that the Theravada Abdhidhamma and Commentaries take, so it's certainly perfectly defensible. As I recall other early sects had a different opinion. I can't fine a definitive comment about it right now but I'm sure that another knowledgeable member will be able to.